The Winds of Khalakovo - Bradley P. Beaulieu [195]
“What is it?” she asked as a cold spike of fear slid deep inside her chest. The boat slid further and was tugged downward momentarily. “What is it?”
“Be quiet!”
A moment later the crack of a musket went off just above her head, making her cringe with fear.
The boat was pulled sharply to port, and something splashed into the water just over the starboard gunwale.
“Kozyol!” the sotnik swore. “Pull harder!”
Then something heavy and wet fell across Rehada’s lap.
CHAPTER 59
Sharp pain shot through Rehada’s thighs. She placed her hands over the cold, slimy tentacle, knowing immediately what sort of creature had attacked the boat. There were several types of squid that wandered the oceans, but only one of them, the goedrun, was large enough and aggressive enough to attack ships. A smaller ship such as theirs was particularly attractive, as it could be tipped over, instantly turning its inhabitants into prey. Given the diameter of the tentacle, she guessed the goedrun was still young, but it was more than a match for the ship if it could get enough tentacles around to capsize it.
“Cut them!” the sotnik shouted, and she heard two of the men moments later sawing at the tentacle as the ship tilted sharply to port.
“Let me free,” Rehada shouted, putting as much command into her voice as she could muster.
She was ignored as another tentacle slipped over the crown of her head and into the laps of the streltsi behind her. The two men screamed and she could hear them sawing at this tentacle as well.
“My circlet!” Rehada screamed.
“Give it to her, Goran!” one of the soldiers behind her shouted.
After a moment’s pause, she could feel the sotnik’s kindjal against the rope at her wrist. An instant later, her hands were free. She pulled the mask off of her face and by the dim light of the quarter moon found the grim-faced sotnik rummaging through a burlap sack at his feet. He pulled her circlet out, but it dropped as the boat tilted sharply upward and he grabbed the gunwales for balance.
Rehada snatched up her circlet, but had already noticed that the stone was dark. Even before she placed it upon her head she knew the truth of it: the suurahezhan she had bonded with had abandoned her, leaving her utterly defenseless. It may have been because of the trip over the water, it may have simply been its time, but something told her it was yet another manifestation of the rift, the rift that Soroush was ready to rip wide open if given the chance.
The streltsi shifted aft, ready to hack at the massive tentacle that had grabbed the boat. As they searched the water, shashkas raised, an arm of the goedrun whipped up out of the water and wrapped around two of them before they had a chance to duck out of its path.
One was able to pull away, but the other was wrapped up tight and was pulled off the boat in a blink, splashing into the dark waves before the shock could even register upon his face.
“Give me your gunpowder,” Rehada said to the sotnik.
He complied without question, unfastening and handing her one of the wooden cartridges hanging from leather cords along the front of his bandolier.
“All of them,” she said while pouring the contents into her lap.
He handed the cartridges as quickly as he could, and Rehada added their contents—ten cartridges’ worth—to the one in her lap, hoping it would be enough.
“A spark,” Rehada said.
From a small leather bag on his bandolier he pulled out a piece of flint and held out his kindjal. “Run the knife—”
“I know,” she snapped, snatching both of them away as the boat tipped upward. There were no tentacles above the water, but by the silver light of the moon she could see many—two dozen or more—floating alongside the boat.
“Behind me, quickly.”
The sotnik complied as Rehada closed her eyes and focused her mind upon the stone set within her circlet. Through it she could feel, barely, Adhiya, though she could not yet feel a hezhan waiting for her. She began to chant, forcing away the danger of the moment, the closeness of the streltsi, utter strangers to this ritual. She